


What Comes Naturally

by KyeAbove



Category: Green Eggs and Ham (Cartoon), The Lorax - Dr. Seuss
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Pre-Canon, Rhyming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:55:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22234426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KyeAbove/pseuds/KyeAbove
Summary: Shortly after ageing out of the orphanage, Sam meets a man called The Once-ler.
Kudos: 24





	What Comes Naturally

**Author's Note:**

> I pictured [this](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JrYxXerdhLQ/V3Zu6houyvI/AAAAAAAACZs/36Ra6sQrnIE7L3y2dLvGkUhR69Lm6mnTwCLcB/s1600/ericguillon_Lorax_072.jpg) concept art from The Lorax movie as the appearance for the Once-ler when writing this.

Sam had been released from the orphanage with only six bruckles and the hat on his head to his name. Sam-I-Am as he told the waitress who took his order. Who was she to doubt his claim? 

With a small shy smile and a tip of his hat, Sam had his food before he could consider a reorder. Green eggs and green ham, together since his childhood on a plate. Sam smiled to hide his true wonder that he’d finally get to taste something familiar, and finally know what made the very so illure. 

So first with gusto he ate, and then disappointment filled his stomach’s emptiness. It seemed he was lacking perceptiveness, or maybe a bruckle or two to really encourage the cook to put in the same love that made his mother’s so good. Sam lowered his fork back down to the plate. Maybe the taste he remembered had dulled with adulthood?

“I’ve never seen anyone so upset with the cook’s green eggs and ham.” Sam heard a voice beside him at the counter, and nodded in agreement, before looking to see who gave a damn. Looking just as lost as Sam felt, was a man with yellow fur, long rounded ears, and a green hat upon his head. He was looking at his own plate, atop with cake and ice cream that had already long melt. 

“They’re just not what I expected them to be.” Sam had thought about this moment ever since he’d passed by and saw what he could recover. More like who he could rediscover. But clearly his mother had no hand in this green eggs and ham. 

“Don’t I know that well, And you are, my young sir?” The man asked, seeming like he wanted to sound older, but he couldn’t have been far much more than Sam’s eighteen years. His disenchanted eyes looked at the ice cream once more, as if staring would once again make it colder. 

“Sam-I-Am, and you Mister Stranger?”

“Once-ler.” 

“Well, Once-ler, why are you so sad?” 

The Once-ler sighed, and once again eyed his ice cream. With a grunt, he looked like he wanted to scream. Then with a breath to calm himself, he said. “I’m a failure.” 

“Why do you think that Mister Once-ler?” 

“I have an idea and no way to see it through.” 

That hit Sam where it hurt, and so he had sympathy. So he smiled excitedly, and that put The Once-ler at ease. “What’s your idea?” 

The Once-ler padded around his coat and then pulled out a paper covered in notes and a single drawing of something almost resembling clothing. “I call it a Thneed. I feel it’s something everyone would need.” 

Sam was genuinely interested now. And it's not like he had anything else to do with his day, anyhow. “What is it?” 

“It can be anything. A scarf, a hammock, a jacket...in theory.” The Once-ler put away the drawing, very disappointed he had so many ideas for his invention but had not way to implement his calling. “I have yet to find a material that can work in all conditions.” 

Sam thought about that and nodded. “Yeah, something like that would have to be soft, flexible…”

“Yes, and resistant, and waterproof, and nexible.” The Once-ler had no machiches of which create his Thneeds, so had only his skills in knitting to create his product. And he’d yet to obtain good deeds to which gain favors from those who could mass produce his work. He looked at this bright eyed boy looking so upset with something anybody could cook. 

“Oh, you knit?” Sam asked with a smile. The Once-ler got a bit affronted. 

“It’s a good skill to have.” 

“I know. I knit too.” Sam replied, and The Once-ler relaxed when he was sure he wasn’t actually being hunted. 

“Then you know what it’s like.”

‘Yeah, I do.” Sam looked back at his green eggs and ham, which was soon to cool. Sam really must have been a fool to think he could use green eggs and ham as a connection to his past. Although it must have been his mother who had taught him how to knit, as even though nobody at the orphanage showed him, he could knit since he was a young kit.

The Once-ler thought more of Sam’s obvious plight, and thought of another restaurant that had been in his sight. He’d chosen to come to this one to mope, as he preferred their cake, but maybe somewhere with different preparation could tend to Sam’s ache.

“I hear the restaurant on Mudberry street gets their green eggs from an out of state farm.” Sam perked up at this. Trying another place could do no harm. And if that place didn’t have his mother’s green eggs and ham, he could try again and again. 

“Thank you Mister Once-ler!” Sam finished his plate as he was too starved to let it go to waste, and then dropped the money on the counter. He jumped off from his chair. “Good luck with your Thneeds, Mister Once-ler! I can’t wait to buy one.” With a single wave, Sam was out the door before his dust could even hit the floor. 

And with a muted smile, slightly remotivated by Sam, The Once-ler took out his very marked up map. One more search around the world couldn’t hurt. Better the best material than a scam.


End file.
